Ximena

Ximena (1046-1116) was the ruler of Valencia from 1099 to 1102 after the death of her husband El Cid. The daughter of the King of Castile's champion Count Gormaz, her father was slain in a duel with El Cid, and she failed to kill him. She later fell in love with him, and she continued his legacy until the city's fall in 1102.

Biography
Ximena was born in 1046, the daughter of Diego Fernandez de Oviedo and his wife Cristina. She married Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (better known by his Arabic nickname "El Cid") in 1074, and there were periods of separation between them, as El Cid was an exile at many times due to his support of some Moorish emirs in battle. In 1089, King Alfonso VI of Castile had Ximena and her children imprisoned during El Cid's second exile, but in 1094 she was released and was allowed to reunite with her husband. In 1099, El Cid was mortally wounded while defending Valencia from Yusuf ibn Tashfin's army, and he insisted that Ximena not remove the arrow from him, accepting his death. Ximena ruled over Valencia for three years after El Cid's death, and the razed the city rather than let the Almoravids have it. She died in a convent in 1116.